McCaskill Wins Key Race Over Talent

Missouri Democrats have regained the United States Senate seat they lost four years ago and, in the process, get the national party closer to the true prize they sought: control of the Senate in Washington. Control of the U. S. Senate remains uncertain with extremely close races in Virginia and Montana to be decided. But McCaskill road a Democratic wave to victory as Republicans lost key race after key race on Tuesday. Declaring, “The great state of Missouri has spoken,” McCaskill addressed an enthusiastic crowd that packed into the Renaissance Grand Hotel in downtown St. Louis.

Democrats remained cautiously optimistic throughout the night, even though McCaskill trailed badly to incumbent Republican Jim Talent in the early going. They noted that she didn’t give as much ground in traditionally Republican areas of the state as she did two years ago in her unsuccessful race against Matt Blunt for governor.

McCaskill shored up enough support in rural Missouri to offset that weakness and allow her strength in Kansas City and St. Louis to lead her to a narrow victory; 49.5% to 47.4% with most precincts reporting.

The prominence the race took on nationally wasn’t lost on McCaskill who addressed that in her victory speech, saying “The nation was watching and we showed them.” The McCaskill victory delighted Democrats who have been searching for something to celebrate for some time. Missouri Democrats used to control politics in the state, but have seen steady erosion of that control over the years, culminating in the loss of the Senate seat, then the Missouri Senate, the governor’s office and finally the Missouri House of Representatives.